Montenegro Court Convicts 12 Ethnic

PODGORICA, Aug 5 – A Montenegrin court convicted 12 ethnic Albanians, including four U.S. citizens, of plotting a rebellion in the Balkan country.
Judge Ivica Stankovic sentenced the defendants to prison terms ranging from three months to nearly six and one-half years.
The 12 were found guilty of “conspiring against the constitution and planning acts against the security of Montenegro,” or plotting a rebellion aimed at carving up their own state.
They included four U.S. citizens identified as Sokol Ivanaj, cousins Kola and Rrok Dedvukaj, and the plot’s mastermind, Doda Ljucaj. All four are from the U.S. state of Michigan. Ivanaj was sentenced to four years in prison, the Dedvukaj cousins to three each, and Ljucaj to nearly six and one-half years.
The judge also said that five other defendants in the case were convicted of the lesser charge of illegal weapons possession.
The group’s members were arrested in September 2006, on the eve of a parliamentary election in then newly-independent Montenegro. They were initially charged with terrorism, but the indictment was later amended to lesser charges.
Montenegrin authorities have said that the group planned attacks on the country’s institutions with an aim of carving up their own state. The police reported finding large quantities of weapons.
The defendants had denied their guilt during the trial. They have accused Montenegrin police of brutality and nationalist behavior toward the small ethnic Albanian community.
“We are not happy with the verdicts, we will appeal,” lawyer Kole Camaj said Tuesday.
Katrina Dedvukaj, the sister of Kola and Rrok Dedvukaj, also said, “I am not happy because they made us guilty.”
“We are not terrorists, this is my country,” she said.
The case has drawn international criticism of Montenegro over allegations of police brutality. The authorities have promised to investigate the accusations.
Montenegro has about 600,000 people. Ethnic Albanians live mostly in the eastern parts of the republic.